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64<a name="Entry-Point"></a>
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67Next: <a href="File-Commands.html#File-Commands" accesskey="n" rel="next">File Commands</a>, Up: <a href="Simple-Commands.html#Simple-Commands" accesskey="u" rel="up">Simple Commands</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="LD-Index.html#LD-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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70<a name="Setting-the-Entry-Point"></a>
71<h4 class="subsection">3.4.1 Setting the Entry Point</h4>
72<a name="index-ENTRY_0028symbol_0029"></a>
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76<p>The first instruction to execute in a program is called the <em>entry
77point</em>.  You can use the <code>ENTRY</code> linker script command to set the
78entry point.  The argument is a symbol name:
79</p><div class="smallexample">
80<pre class="smallexample">ENTRY(<var>symbol</var>)
81</pre></div>
82
83<p>There are several ways to set the entry point.  The linker will set the
84entry point by trying each of the following methods in order, and
85stopping when one of them succeeds:
86</p><ul>
87<li> the &lsquo;<samp>-e</samp>&rsquo; <var>entry</var> command-line option;
88</li><li> the <code>ENTRY(<var>symbol</var>)</code> command in a linker script;
89</li><li> the value of a target-specific symbol, if it is defined;  For many
90targets this is <code>start</code>, but PE- and BeOS-based systems for example
91check a list of possible entry symbols, matching the first one found.
92</li><li> the address of the first byte of the &lsquo;<samp>.text</samp>&rsquo; section, if present;
93</li><li> The address <code>0</code>.
94</li></ul>
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